Internet

David English's call for help went 'round the world before Christmas. Sitting at his computer keyboard at work in Santa Clara, Calif., English, 40, was in tears and considering suicide: "It doesn't really matter any more," began the E-mail message he sent into cyberspace. The response was immediate: "Please - any crisis people available in the Bay Area, California," a woman in New York state implored participants in an online support group for depression sufferers, where English had posted his message.

From his office at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science, headquarters of the 150-member World Wide Web Consortium and birthplace of many high-tech wonders of the digital revolution, lab director Michael Dertouzos can monitor the past and the future. Through the wall-size window of his command center in Technology Square, Dertouzos, the lab's director for 23 years and author of What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives (HarperCollins, $25), watches the trains of the Boston "T" roll by, symbols of a 19th-century invention that revolutionized society.

Ten, I said. That was the number of men I would date - we're talking Internet dating now - before deciding on one for a serious relationship. I made my friends promise to make me stick to this resolve. Well, it is now 40 or so later (whom I have personally met), and 100 or so with whom I have corresponded; my friends no longer keep track. Is it worth it? Absolutely, yes! Before I discovered this cornucopia, my main hope of meeting a compatible soul was at the supermarket - a long shot at best.

Question: My 12th-grade daughter has a 486 laptop with 12 megs of memory and a hard drive with about 100 to 150 megabytes free. She is having trouble accessing the World Wide Web and communicating with various colleges to get information about admission. America Online says her computer has the minimum requirements to operate on the Internet via AOL. Is AOL correct? Or is her computer just not powerful enough to get on the Internet? I would like the computer to last through her senior year before I ante up for a newer system.

A perky "personal shopper" skims along warehouse aisles - market basket in one hand, order printout in the other - assembling the order: an exotic black sea salt from India, a trio of olive oil, vinegar and olives from Italy, and, from the refrigerated cheese room, vacuum-packed wedges of an award-winning fresh chevre from Humboldt, Calif., and a creamy blue from Bavaria. The basket is inspected, the order verified, then moved on for packing. The order, which came in on the Internet at 4:45 a.m., goes out in a FedEx pickup at 12:30 p.m., less than eight hours later.

There goes my hero Watch him as he goes There goes my hero He's ordinary - "My Hero," by Foo Fighters In his video highlights from the 2007 season, easily accessed at YouTube and AOL Video, Shawn Krautzel is no ordinary football player. With pulsating music from the Foo Fighters and AC/DC ("Shoot to Kill," from Back in Black ) in the background, the Interboro wide receiver and kick returner dashes, darts and leaps over would-be tacklers. Despite extra-tight coverage, he makes amazing touchdown catches for the Bucs.

As long as there have been bridges, trolls have hidden beneath them. Same for the Internet. As long as there have been message boards, discussion groups, and comment strings, there have been "trolls" - people who, under cover of Web anonymity, post bullying, lewd, or off-point comments, disrupting and demeaning the whole enterprise. Some comment strings are moderated, so trolls can be blocked and deleted - but most of cyberspace is, in the words of one (anonymous!) wit, "free range for idiots.

What's in store for Pennsylvania's environment? To find out, just ride down the information superhighway to derinfo(at)pader.gov, the state Department of Environmental Resources' new Internet address for public information requests. DER has established two public Internet addresses and is distributing a weekly newsletter through the global computer network. Department officials also are looking at making a wide range of DER documents electronically accessible. And there's talk about setting up DER "gophers," "listserves" and "home pages" on the World Wide Web. It's all part of an attempt to make what is arguably one of the most daunting state bureaucracies more user-friendly.

First, technology led to a new economy. Now, it is likely to give birth to a new politics. The Internet is already changing the way candidates reach out to voters and how they raise money. But over the next several years, rapid changes in the way people live and work will force a fundamental change in what Americans want and get from their politicians, their political parties and their government. Turning increasingly to the computer as a virtual shopping cart, they will force state and local government to decide who pays sales taxes.

If an Internet site goes dark, does anyone really care? You might find out this morning now that 'Black Wednesday' has begun in earnest, with major Internet sites going dark, or engaging in some form of virtual protest of anti-piracy legislation. Wikipedia, which has kicked up a ruckus over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), redirects users to this message headlined: "Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge. " "For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history," the message continues.